With ALL of my experiments performed to reassure mankind that gravity does indeed still exist in my almost 64 years on this marble, I should have reacted much better in my latest fall over on 5/24/2014 and my crash on 5/29/2014. Slow, very slow learner.

The helmet afforded the cushion that allowed my head to BOUNCE up on the 5/29/2014 crash without suffering ill effects to my mellon. Can't say that about the helmet though.

Not sure what you are trying to say here... How did your helmet help your friend?

Be prepared to be dissed since you reported a personal incident that you say a helmet helped prevent injury. The anti helmet crowd dont like reports like yours. In fact they hate real world reports. They would rather spew random "studies" that generally have preconceived conclusions to support their postition.

I am stating that to be fun and enjoyable, a bike ride should allow you the time to look around and enjoy the scenery etc. Yes be aware of other cyclist or walkers, but full 100% attention to biking is not needed. For a professional, yes, but not the ave cyclist.

In a thread under a different heading, someone pointed out the fact that some of us are and are called old coots, because we are smart enough to survive. I replied that he was absolutely right. Among the reasons that I am and old coot is the fact I am intelligent enough to logically decide what safety equiptment I need to use. On both my bent and my trike I wear a helmet. And while I use cycling shoes I do not usually clip in on my bent. But because of possible leg suck on bumps I always clip in on my trike. Old age and logic will alway trump youth and and it will never happen to me attitude.

What about fighter pilots? Speed AND reflexes in 3 dimensions. We weren't exactly designed for that. Don't underestimate human capability WHEN there is total focus on the task at hand.

Fighter pilots usually also have a lot of room to work with, and are aided by all kinds of technology while flying. It's still quite a feat to fly at super-sonic speeds, of course, and I don't underestimate if, but I also don't underestimate the limitations natural selection put on us.

Be prepared to be dissed since you reported a personal incident that you say a helmet helped prevent injury. The anti helmet crowd dont like reports like yours. In fact they hate real world reports. They would rather spew random "studies" that generally have preconceived conclusions to support their postition.

No problem.....I post to be dissed. Enjoy stirring the pot when I can.

I was going to mention that now I wear 2 helmets so the next time I bounce right back up on to my bike's wheels.

With ALL of my experiments performed to reassure mankind that gravity does indeed still exist in my almost 64 years on this marble, I should have reacted much better in my latest fall over on 5/24/2014 and my crash on 5/29/2014. Slow, very slow learner.

The helmet afforded the cushion that allowed my head to BOUNCE up on the 5/29/2014 crash without suffering ill effects to my mellon.

When I get older losing my hair
Many years from now
I will make a study of gravity
If it falls down, it just might be me
Bouncing my melon of off the ground
Will you stop and see
If I'm still lucid, if I can count
Over sixty-three?

You'll be older too
And if you still can post
I could reply to you

It should be dandy, riding around
Helmet hair or not
You can knit a jersey that will match my lid
Wait 'til my birthday, 'til then keep it hid
We could play marbles, in our spare time
It needn't be a bore
Will you still need me, will you still heed me
When I'm sixty-four?

too many bikes from 1967 10s (5x2)Frejus to a Sumitomo Ti/Chorus aluminum 10s (10x2), plus one non-susp mtn bike I use as my commuter

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Originally Posted by San Rensho

Because fighter pilots can eject from a plane if something goes wrong and you definitely have to have a helmet to survive the ejection and parachute landing process.

That's part of the reason. The other is that fighter cockpits aren't fully pressurized, so pilots need to breath from a mask, they also need ear phones and a microphone, along with a sun/glare visor with usually a heads up display. So when all is said and done, a helmet combining all these functions is easier than trying to attach a bunch of gadgets to the head.

When I get older losing my hair
Many years from now
I will make a study of gravity
If it falls down, it just might be me
Bouncing my melon of off the ground
Will you stop and see
If I'm still lucid, if I can count
Over sixty-three?

You'll be older too
And if you still can post
I could reply to you

It should be dandy, riding around
Helmet hair or not
You can knit a jersey that will match my lid
Wait 'til my birthday, 'til then keep it hid
We could play marbles, in our spare time
It needn't be a bore
Will you still need me, will you still heed me
When I'm sixty-four?

Why is it that the people that post here against helmets, and ride without them, think NOTHING will ever happen to them. Do you have a magic neckless around you neck that protects you from the unexpected. Why do you think in a totally unexpected situation (schidt happens) your head will never hit the concrete? Wouldnt you rather have a helmet on that reduces sudden death to a really bad concussion that you can recover from?

Why is it that the people that post here against helmets, and ride without them, think NOTHING will ever happen to them. Do you have a magic neckless around you neck that protects you from the unexpected. Why do you think in a totally unexpected situation (schidt happens) your head will never hit the concrete? Wouldnt you rather have a helmet on that reduces sudden death to a really bad concussion that you can recover from?

If someone said: I don't wear a helmet because I choose not to. I could respect that. But to try to warp facts and make up stories to try to convince others that its safer to ride with out a helmet is disingenuous at best.

Why is it that the people that post here against helmets, and ride without them, think NOTHING will ever happen to them. Do you have a magic neckless around you neck that protects you from the unexpected. Why do you think in a totally unexpected situation (schidt happens) your head will never hit the concrete? Wouldnt you rather have a helmet on that reduces sudden death to a really bad concussion that you can recover from?

I wouldn't say "nothing will ever happen" but the odds are strongly against my head hitting the concrete. I don't "post against helmets" though - I think that a person may reasonably choose to wear or not wear a helmet in a given set of circumstances.

I once had an accident on a motorcycle. Long story short, the brakes failed (old bike) in a perfect storm of a bad situation (schidt does happen), and I was launched over the car I rear ended, sailing some 15 feet high at around 65 mph. I was wearing a helmet, but it didn't jar against the concrete and wasn't scratched up so I don't credit it with saving me from injury or death. I walked away without a scratch.

I've had a few bicycle crashes of varying severity but never hit my head, or helmet as the case may be. It's a useful piece of safety equipment but very much secondary to other factors.

It must be great to go thru life fat dumb and happy thinking nothing will ever happen to you. Too bad that those here that think they are invincible didnt spend time in the boy scouts. "Be Prepared" That would mean wearing a helmet when cycling.

In one of the bike forums on trikes, a new triker wrote in and told us how much he was enjoying his trike. Several of us wrote back that he should be sure and get shoes and pedals so he could clip in to prevent leg suck. A few day later he was man enough to write back in, and admit that he had a case of leg suck that fortunately was not too bad. Altho he didnt say so Im sure that he might have figured that leg suck wasnt a big deal, and probably wouldnt happen to him.

too many bikes from 1967 10s (5x2)Frejus to a Sumitomo Ti/Chorus aluminum 10s (10x2), plus one non-susp mtn bike I use as my commuter

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Originally Posted by rydabent

...

The same will happen to the no helmet crowd sooner or later.

Feel free to wear your helmet and enjoy tour rides, but please spare us from your "you'll crash and die one day" sermons because they have nothing to do with reality. Has it not occurred to you that people have been riding bicycles without helmets for about a century, and millions ride continue to do so all over the world, including the USA and the actual incidence of head injuries has always been, and remains relatively low.

Yes, it can happen, but we face real and more likely risks every day.

Do helmets reduce the chance of head injury in the event of a crash, yes. But that doesn't in any imply the kind of you're likely to crash one day BS you continue to spout. It's the patronizing BS from jerks like you (not you, other jerks) that fuels the flames of the helmet debate.

Anyway speaking of the risk of head injury, the bulk of those of us who don't wear helmets don't ride around with our heads sticking out the back of our vehicles at about vehicular bumper height. Taking head injury advice from someone who does seems kind of ridiculous.

Feel free to wear your helmet and enjoy tour rides, but please spare us from your "you'll crash and die one day" sermons because they have nothing to do with reality. Has it not occurred to you that people have been riding bicycles without helmets for about a century, and millions ride continue to do so all over the world, including the USA and the actual incidence of head injuries has always been, and remains relatively low.

Yes, it can happen, but we face real and more likely risks every day.

Do helmets reduce the chance of head injury in the event of a crash, yes. But that doesn't in any imply the kind of you're likely to crash one day BS you continue to spout. It's the patronizing BS from jerks like you (not you, other jerks) that fuels the flames of the helmet debate.

Anyway speaking of the risk of head injury, the bulk of those of us who don't wear helmets don't ride around with our heads sticking out the back of our vehicles at about vehicular bumper height.Taking head injury advice from someone who does seems kind of ridiculous.

????? And now who is being a jerk? Even tho you tried to not make it personal, it still ended that way...

He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts...for support rather than illumination. I do like my beer, so sometimes I do end up leaning on the lamp-post...

too many bikes from 1967 10s (5x2)Frejus to a Sumitomo Ti/Chorus aluminum 10s (10x2), plus one non-susp mtn bike I use as my commuter

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Originally Posted by 350htrr

????? And now who is being a jerk? Even tho you tried to not make it personal, it still ended that way...

Yes, after multiple and constantly repeated posts implying that those who don't wear helmets are idiots I finally had enough and lashed back.

Whether one wears a helmet or not, or makes ANY decisions different from what people may agree with or not, there's no call for repeatedly saying things to the effect of "I can't understand......" Nobody cares whether anyone understands or not. We all live our lives our way, and make decisions accordingly. This applies not only to bike helmets, but to EVERY aspect of life.

But Maybe I'm wrong about this, and I should start regularly posting that I can't understand what people are thinking when they----whatever.

I'm tired of being called anti-helmet, because I'm not, but I am adamantly anti helmet zealotry.

I have noticed a change, that you exemplify FBinNY... And I do believe you are actually more right than others at either end of the spectrum (including me a year+ ago), in general... Nobody has said lately, that wearing a helmet actually increases your chances at head injury, and it seems to me that most "the helmet saved my life" coments have been modified to "maybe the helmet lowered some of the bad effect of head hitting the ground" compared to without a helmet... Thus I think there has been some headway... in general in this thread.

If someone said: I don't wear a helmet because I choose not to. I could respect that. But to try to warp facts and make up stories to try to convince others that its safer to ride with out a helmet is disingenuous at best.

I find it amusing that some here say there is NO EVIDENCE that helmets do much good in a crash, then the next day a claim is made that helmets can cause harm even though there is STILL no evidence that helmets do anything worth wearing them. If there is no evidence, then there is no evidence. I think. No matter. I am amused.

"For all we know his skills may be excellent, allowing him to ride like an idiot without actually being one." - FBinNY

too many bikes from 1967 10s (5x2)Frejus to a Sumitomo Ti/Chorus aluminum 10s (10x2), plus one non-susp mtn bike I use as my commuter

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Originally Posted by JoeyBike

I find it amusing that some here say there is NO EVIDENCE that helmets do much good in a crash, then the next day a claim is made that helmets can cause harm even though there is STILL no evidence that helmets do anything worth wearing them. If there is no evidence, then there is no evidence. I think. No matter. I am amused.

It's not that there's no evidence. There's plenty of evidence. The devil is in how to interpret it.

IMO- there are three legitimate avenues of debate

1- what is the real risk of head injury when bicycling, compared to other daily risks we face every day. Regardless of any facts or real evidence, there will always be debate because we all have different risk thresholds and also because the issue is emotionally charged.

2- what is the extent of protection helmets actually offer? To what extent to they reduce impact G-force, and what can or should users expect. Bulletproof vests are rated for the type of ammunition they protect against, and it's known what they do and don't protect against. But nobody seems willing to offer a quantifiable range of speeds and types of impacts helmets an mitigate effectively, and what their users can expect.

3- what helmets, by general design and construction class, or brand offer more or less protection? What are the benefits and drawbacks of differing helmets? Do better shells make a difference, is there less protection in the highly vented versions, etc.

This forum has a tremendous amount of specific and detailed discussion of the most minute aspects of bicycle equipment, yet helmet discussion seems to be mostly of the "wear a helmet, or risk dying" type (pro and con).

So my question to helmet advocates is, don't you care about how effective helmets are, or do you assign this question the same import as a chain lube discussion? Or put another way, if you wear a helmet, wouldn't your efforts be better spent toward ensuring that you're getting all the protection you expect, rather than lecturing others about what they should do.